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Friday, December 31, 2010

Free Speech and Fair Elections for the People: A Public 'Teach-In' on Democracy Reform and Amending the Constitution Sunday, February 6th Join us for this exciting and educational forum, featuring some of the top advocates of democracy reform.

Topics will include national and state-level measures, including a Constitutional Amendment.

Panelists: Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland's 4th district, speaking on the Constitutional amendment she has introduced to allow Congress to regulate the range of speech rights of corporate entities, and on other federal measures she recommends to reduce undue corporate influence on elections.

Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin, American University Constitutional law professor, who represents Takoma Park and is a member of Maryland's new campaign finance task force, on proposed state legislation for campaign finance transparency and reform.

Anna White, Democracy Organizer for Public Citizen, on the growing national grassroots movement for a constitutional amendment and how Marylanders can get involved.

Jessica Sharp, co-founder and co-director of Fair and Clean Elections Maryland, on opportunities to lobby for pertinent Maryland legislation and take part in other supporting activities.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Please take a minute right now to call Gov. O'Malley's office and urge him to fund this in the budget he will introduce in Jan. Very little money should be needed in FY2012 for the switch. The governor's office phone numbers are: 410.974.3901 / 1.800.811.8336

Report: Scanners cost less than touch-screen machines

Advocates hope that change will be funded

by Alan Brody | Staff writer

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland would save as much as $9.5 million over eight years by switching to an optical-scan voting system, according to a new report that advocates hope will spur Gov. Martin O'Malley and legislative leaders to start funding the replacement of the current touch-screen machines in fiscal 2012.

The independent analysis, conducted by a North Carolina research firm for the Department of Legislative Services, appears to confirm what supporters of a voter-verified paper trail system have long argued: It costs more money to maintain the current equipment than to purchase new machines that allow voters to print out paper receipts of their selections.

Monday, May 10, 2010

(Includes the Progressive Working Group's three legislative priorities - campaign finance reform, combined reporting and government transparency - and several other important bills. Thanks to Progressive Cheverly for most of this wrap-up)

Campaign Finance Reform for General Assembly Races – This measure would help neutralize the effect of special-interest money in our political process. Unfortunately, Senate President Mike Miller switched his support of a year ago, and the bill remained bottled up in Senate committee without even making it to the House for consideration.

Reducing the Impact of Budget Cuts Through Fair Revenue Sources – Combined reporting, which would close income-tax loopholes for corporations that operate in more than one state, was not passed. Likewise, the “millionaire’s tax,” enacted in 2008 and set to expire this year, was allowed to do so, effectively lowering taxes for the top 1% of Maryland taxpayers. Together, these lost revenues will amount to $250 million per year, and cuts to services for the disabled and poor were made instead.

Improved Transparency of General Assembly Business and Improved Citizen Access – A bill was not enacted that would make it easier for citizens to access information about the progress of legislation and present testimony during hearings and require such bill hearings and meetings of the Board of Public Works to be broadcast on the Internet. Instead, these concerns were relegated to a summer study. However, this legislative effort did prompt leaders in the House and Senate to require that all committee votes be posted online.

ASVAB – Legislation was passed that only students and their parents or guardians can release the results of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test to the the military. ASVAB is used as a military recruiting tool in public high schools throughout the country. Almost 7,000 students in 156 public schools throughout Maryland took the test in the last year for which data is available. 91% had the results and private information forwarded to military recruiting services without parental consent and often without parental knowledge. This legislation ends this practice and represents a real victory for student privacy from military recruiters.

Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers (BOAST) in Maryland Tax Credit – Progressives generally opposed this legislation that would have granted tax credits to businesses that fund scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools, which means primarily religious schools (which represent over 80% of all private school students*). The bill passed the Senate, but a revised version of the legislation was reported unfavorably out of the House Ways and Means Committee on the last day of the session so the legislation was not passed. .

Civil Marriage Equality and Transgender Anti-discrimination – In the middle of the session, Attorney General Doug Gansler issued an opinion that state agencies should begin recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states where they are legal. Legislative efforts to undo Gansler’s opinion were unsuccessful. The bill that would allow such marriages to be performed in Maryland did not pass, but it gained more co-sponsors. Transgender anti-discrimination legislation also remained stuck in Senate committee, but it, too, gained new co-sponsors. Additional legislation died that would have protected parenting rights and extended medical leave to siblings, grandparents and domestic partners.

Environmental Justice and Environmental Protection – Protecting the green infrastructure budget: There were some important gains, especially considering the budget constraints that pervaded this legislative session: $22 million for the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund, preserved funding for Project Open Space, and protected funds for environmental enforcement. The Smarter Transportation Choices for Maryland Act passed and establishes smart and fair growth criteria for funding transportation projects. The Watershed Protection and Restoration Act did not pass. Instead “emergency regulations” were passed, which constitute a severe setback to the 2007 Stormwater Management legislation. A legislative effort to restrict funding for the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic, was defeated. Some legislators from the Eastern Shore wanted to use the budget process to try to intimidate the Environmental Law Clinic from taking action against Perdue and other companies who are major contributors to agricultural pollution of the Bay and other waterways.

End Life Without Parole Sentencing for Juveniles – The U.S. is the only country that officially sanctions life-long sentences for children who have committed serious crimes, and Maryland currently has 13 such individuals serving sentences. Efforts to outlaw this practice in Maryland did not move forward this year.

Panel One: Progressives Challenging Incumbents: Delegate Karen Montgomery, who is running for the State Senate against Rona Kramer in District 14 and Dana Beyer, who is running for delegate in District 18, both pointed out that in Maryland, the defeat of progressive legislation is often attributable to Democratic legislators who are, at best, moderates. Therefore, they said, progressives should hold candidates to a higher standard than just being Democratic. A participant from the audience stated that unless an elected representative or candidate supported campaign finance reform, they should not be considered a progressive.

Lenett – Open government measures are very important. They give progressives more voice. We need procedural reforms so that we actually get votes on legislation. Currently, many measures are killed by putting them in “the drawer.” Legislators would pass more progressive bills if we could get a vote on the measures. We should consider changes that would make it harder to just put bills in the drawer, such as guaranteeing a committee vote on all bills filed by a certain deadline, allowing each legislator a minimum number of bills that must be guaranteed a committee vote, or a petition process to force a committee vote.

Manno – A big obstacle to progressive legislation is the quality of representatives we send to Annapolis. Our expectations are too low. We don't need people who sometimes vote right but often don't support us when no one is closely watching.

Hixson – Progressives should never quit. You must keep pushing for your issues and that includes talking to representatives who don't agree with you.

Raskin – There are politicians who are interested in justice and there are politicians who are interested in power. We need to get the right kind of representatives elected and then organize to pressure them to do the right thing.

Pinsky – The state is an arbiter of class forces. On one side are the liquor lobby, the Chamber of Commerce, developers, etc. Next session, we need to assess our resources and pick issues very strategically that have a chance of winning. Combined reporting can pass next year if we work on it.

Harrington – Representatives are able to get away with things by calling themselves progressives. We need to check people carefully to see if they are willing to stand up for the right thing, even when it's not popular and powerful interests are fighting us. As progressives, we also need to make tight arguments in favor of our measures so that the opposition sees that we're serious and that it will be difficult to oppose us. And we need to stick with issues - sometimes it takes years to win.

Montgomery – On progressive health care bills, the biggest problem we faced was drug (pharmaceutical) companies. We need to chip away on our issues, even if it takes years to win a complete victory.

Hucker – The system is set up to defeat progressive legislation. To win, we need good ideas (a sound philosophy) a good sponsor for the legislation, careful attention to process (reaching out to opponents, seeing where compromises are necessary), hard work, and grass roots pressure. It's easy to block reforms; to win everything has to go right.

Points Made in Discussion: Legislator - Progress on abolishing the death penalty is also possible next session.

Legislator - We need to keep pushing for campaign finance reform. Mike Miller has been hot and cold on this and may not strongly oppose.

Participant – It is frustrating to progressives that many bills get put in “the drawer” and never get a vote in committee.

Participant - We need to raise expectations and awareness of what's going on in Annapolis. Most people in Maryland don't know who their state legislators are! We should work to change the culture in Annapolis by electing true progressives and by increasing public awareness about state issues. This would make good legislators better and make mediocre legislators private citizens.

O'Donnell: It's good that Progressive Working Group got its profile raised this session – I'm proud of that. But something is wrong in Annapolis when campaign finance reform doesn't even come up for a vote, but a bill to impeach the Attorney General because of his opinion on gay marriage gets voted on. Nothing was really done this session on campaign finance reform. We need to work together even more closely on our legislation.

Elder: We scored a victory on ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) tests, but there are more peace issues we need to address. We won on ASVAB in part because we made it an issue of student privacy and civil rights, not solely an anti-war issue. Also, we were a real presence in Annapolis and talked to many legislators to explain the issue, including those who had been opposed to our legislation at first. We figured out a way to talk about privacy and civil rights issues and not just peace. We also worked with partners with more lobbying experience, and insiders helped us dissect the committees for problem areas.

Dobson – I have been lobbying for 10 years and it used to be worse. We got at least 7 good labor bills. But for the bluest state in the country, what happened in Annapolis is not good enough. The problem is still the State Senate which really operates as a 'good old boy' network. Miller is conservative but pragmatic so he will give us progressives a few things. In this year's elections, we need to defeat conservatives. We should see how all progressive groups can come together around some candidates.

Stevens – We need to realize that we're in a long-haul fight on many of our progressive issues, but we need to keep pushing even if we don't make progress at first.

O'Leary – Environmental groups came in with a very limited agenda this session. We made some progress, but it was limited and even things that were pass were pared back. (See legislative wrap-up below). The press focused on divisions among environmental groups.

Discussion of Next Steps:

-We need a stronger Annapolis presence during the session.

-Clean water is a winnable issue that should be a priority

-Stay-at-home-moms – I am one and I'm willing to organize other such moms and go to Annapolis regularly to lobby for progressive issues

-We need to go door-to-door in the home districts of targeted conservative legislators, especially Senators, to challenge them on the issues.

-We need a scorecard to identify legislators who are undermining progressive legislation

-Progressive Working Group should be a co-sponsor with Move-On in the Community Forums - “Time to Stop the Corporate Raid On Our Democracy!” (This was approved by voice vote. See below for more information.)

Where do your state legislators stand on key issues including: the Environment, Campaign Finance and Transparency in Government, Healthcare, Education, Labor, Gender Issues, Separation of Church and State, Peace and Justice, and more. Share your legislative priorities
for the 2011 session. For more information, please call: 443-604-2298

Marcy Winograd is a long-time activist for peace and social justice running against corporate / Blue Dog incumbent Jane Harman (CA-36) in the June 8 Democratic primary. Marcy wants to redirect our priorities from war spending and corporate greed to job creation, world-class
education, health care, and energy independence through a Green New Deal. While Jane Harman famously called herself "The Best Republican in the Democratic Party," the Party named Marcy a "Democrat of the Year." Come see why the San Francisco Chronicle named this one of seven national races to watch.

Agenda: Mobilizing for progressive candidates, events and issues. We're making progress in our county and state on Healthcare, Verifiable Voting, the Environment, Education, Labor, Transportation, Energy and other issues. We're building up our coalition and lobby efforts on the state and national level, planning special events, forming a steering committee, and working on meetings with elected officials and other organizations.

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7. Peace Luncheon of Peace Action Montgomery, PAX Christi and the Social
Justice Committee of the Universalist Church of Rockville
Saturday May 8th 11:30 AM to 2 PM
Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville
100 Welsh Park Dr, Rockville, MD 20805

Keynote speaker: Ray McGovern. Delegate Sheila Hixson and Senator Jamie Raskin will be honored for their work on the ASVAB legislation Help raise funds for Afghan women. Raffle for a motorized bike! More info. see: http://washingtonpeacecenter.net/node/2994

Where do your state legislators stand on key issues including: the Environment, Campaign Finance and Transparency in Government, Healthcare, Education, Labor, Gender Issues, Separation of Church and State, Peace and Justice, and more. Share your legislative priorities
for the 2011 session. For more information, please call: 443-604-2298

Marcy Winograd is a long-time activist for peace and social justice running against corporate / Blue Dog incumbent Jane Harman (CA-36) in the June 8 Democratic primary. Marcy wants to redirect our priorities from war spending and corporate greed to job creation, world-class
education, health care, and energy independence through a Green New Deal. While Jane Harman famously called herself "The Best Republican in the Democratic Party," the Party named Marcy a "Democrat of the Year." Come see why the San Francisco Chronicle named this one of seven national races to watch.

Agenda: Mobilizing for progressive candidates, events and issues. We're making progress in our county and state on Healthcare, Verifiable Voting, the Environment, Education, Labor, Transportation, Energy and other issues. We're building up our coalition and lobby efforts on the state and national level, planning special events, forming a steering committee, and working on meetings with elected officials and other organizations.

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6. Peace Luncheon of Peace Action Montgomery, PAX Christi and the Social Justice Committee of the Universalist Church of Rockville

Where do your state legislators stand on key issues including: the Environment, Campaign Finance and Transparency in Government, Healthcare, Education, Labor, Gender Issues, Separation of Church and State, Peace and Justice, and more. Share your legislative priorities for the 2011 session.

Friday, January 29, 2010

The organizations listed below have formed a coalition to support the Progressive Working Group's three legislative priorities for the 2010 session: 1) campaign finance reform, 2) greater transparency/equal access in Annapolis, and 3) progressive measures to deal with the state budget crisis, specifically combined corporate income reporting:

The Progressive Working Group (PWG), a coalition of 24 organizations* in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties--and most recently Howard and Baltimore Counties and Baltimore City--is supporting 3 important issues: campaign finance reform, greater transparency/open access in Annapolis, combined reporting aka closing a massive corporate tax loophole. Following a PWG meeting with House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch, we're hopeful we can achieve progress on all of these issues!

In fact, we've already seen progress. Quickly following efforts from PWG and coalition allies Ryan O'Donnell (Maryland Common Cause), Sean Dobson, (Progressive Maryland) and Maryland Transparency and Equal Access in Government, Speaker Busch and Senate President Mike Miller took steps to promote greater transparency in General Assembly operations, including posting committee votes online.

We're not satisfied with partial success on one issue area, however. We're asking you to adapt the following sample letter (see below) to write or call your state legislators. Please use your own words! Identical emails and calls are less likely to receive due consideration. You can find your legislators' contact information online here: http://mlis.state.md.us

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2. EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT! Maryland needs voting machines we can trust. The Maryland Legislature unanimously voted for paper-based, verifiable voting. Unfortunately, Governor O'Malley failed to fund the transition away from unreliable, error-prone, expensive and obsolete DRE voting machines in his current budget. The Board of Public Works will meet to consider funding the transition to more reliable, less costly paper ballot voting. Urge your state legislators to contact the Governor and demand voting machines we can trust in Maryland! (See sample letter below).

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3. Sample Letter on Progressive Working Group Issues:

Dear (name and office of delegate or senator)

I am a member of the Montgomery County Progressive Alliance, a grassroots group with approximately 1100 members in Montgomery County. We are part of a coalition of 24 groups which supports campaign finance reform, greater transparency and equal access in Annapolis, and combined corporate income reporting. I urge you to support these issues in the current legislative session.

Maryland needs voting machines we can trust. We thank you for voting to purchase and deploy paper-based, verifiable voting machines. Although you and the rest of the Maryland General Assembly unanimously voted for it, Governor O'Malley failed to fund the transition away from unreliable, error-prone, expensive and obsolete DRE voting machines in his current budget. Please contact the Governor and convey your strong commitment to voting machines we can trust in Maryland. Urge him to fund the transition to more reliable, less costly, verifiable paper ballot voting machines when the Board of Public Works meets to consider funding priorities in Maryland early next month.

We need real campaign finance reform (CFR) including voluntary public financing of General Assembly elections. This would let you focus on important issues facing our state, rather than on raising funds for your campaign. I understand challengers can raise campaign funds during the session, but you are not allowed to do so. We believe CFR would fix this unfair situation, and help free you and your colleagues from the burdens of fundraising. This would increase public confidence in the General Assembly, and ultimately make your work more effective.

We've considered the impact the recent US Supreme Court decision may have on CFR, and we understand that public financing would likely survive judicial challenge by virtue of its voluntary nature. We also understand that Sen. Paul Pinsky is among the legislators like to sponsor such legislation during the 2010 session. We strongly urge you to do all you can to ensure the passage of public financing CFR into law.

Please support Del. Heather Mizeur's Maryland Open Government Act. Greater transparency/open access will let citizens better understand your efforts in Annapolis by facilitating access to information and participation in hearings. If enacted, the bill would allow free and total public access to services on the General Assembly's Web site--eliminating the $800 fee for legislative tracking. It would also provide for live webcasts of committee hearings and Board of Public Works meetings. To facilitate public participation in General Assembly committee hearings, it would require one-day advance online notice of committee hearing agendas, would let people sign-up online to testify, and would mandate the publication of standing committee votes on the General Assembly Web site.

These objectives enjoy wide support politically and geographically. Along with all 24 members and allies of the PWG in Baltimore City, Montgomery, Howard, Baltimore and Prince George's Counties, both House Speaker Busch and Senate President Miller endorse these principles. According to the Cumberland Times-News, "A legislative working group of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce generally supported the Maryland Open Government Act." Clearly, the time for greater access and transparency has come. Please sign on as a co-sponsor of The Maryland Open Government Act in the House of Delegates, or parallel legislation in the Senate.

We support combined corporate income reporting which would require the largest multi-state corporations to pay their fair share and help support education, infrastructure, transportation and other basic needs in Maryland. During the current budget crisis, this is more important than ever. Combined reporting will not harm Maryland's economy or undermine efforts to attract and foster strong commercial growth. According to The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, which studied employment growth in states with combined reporting states from 1990-2006, "five of the seven states with the fastest employment growth use combined reporting" and "ten of the states with combined reporting had employment growth exceeding the national growth rate."

According to an article entitled "Combined Reporting" from the New Rules Project: "Many retail chains earn profits at stores nationwide, but have developed an accounting scheme to evade paying their full share of state corporate income taxes. Tax experts believe the practice is costing states billions of dollars in lost revenue. It has also given chains an advantage over locally owned businesses, which must pay state income tax on all of their earnings. Twenty-one states are not vulnerable to these tax-evasion schemes, because they have enacted a policy known as combined reporting." These states include--Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Maryland has been considering enacting combined reporting for several years. The House of Delegates passed Combined Reporting during the recent special session, but the Senate did not. Other states currently considering combined reporting include Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The 31 states which have passed or are considering combined reporting represent every region of the U.S.--a wide range of political and socio-economic character--which indicates that this is not a left or right, pro- or anti-business, or partisan issue. Combined reporting is a simple matter of basic fairness, sound economics, and honest accounting.

We urge you to support Del. Roger Manno's HB 10 which would dedicate funds from combined reporting to strengthen the state employees' and teachers' pension systems and prevent transfer of pension obligations to the counties and Baltimore City. Please co-sponsor HB 10 in the House, or sponsor and support parallel legislation in the Senate.

Maryland Transparency and Equal Access in Government Coalition (MD TEAG) builds support for transparency/open access issues and needs more volunteers. TEAG has been meeting with legislators and others on these issues. For more information on TEAG's long range goals as well as its work in the current session and to become involved, contact Luis Zapata, Chair, MD TEAG Coalition, MDTEAG@gmail.com, 301-325-6754.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Progressive Working Group had a very productive meeting Sunday attended by close to 30 representatives of progressive groups. Thanks to everyone who came and participated (some from as far away as Baltimore), thanks to Progressive Maryland for use of their office, and thanks to State Delegates Tom Hucker, Roger Manno, and Heather Mizeur as well as Ryan O'Donnell from Common Cause for their remarks to the group.

Now, the next stage of our work begins. We will be sending out communications to, and meeting with, state legislators to advance our three priority issues – 1) campaign finance reform, 2) greater transparency/open access in Annapolis, and 3) progressive measures to deal with the state budget crisis, specifically combined corporate income reporting.

photo by Herb Ettel, Progressive Maryland

As a first step, we would like to make sure that we have a correct list of the groups that have signed on as endorsers of these issues so we can include them in our letters and in our meetings with state legislators. Could you please check below to make sure we have listed your group correctly. Also, if you know other groups that might want to be added as an endorser, please let us know or have the group contact us.

We will follow up with further communications on lobbying efforts, progress, etc.